What do you get when you cross a Northerner with a Filipina?

Trouble, apparently, if the resulting furor over the Harry and Paul sketch is to be believed.

Again our people are up in arms over a slight.  It’s not the first time that we’ve gone crazy over some misrepresentation or unflattering portrayal.  Biscuits, dictionary definitions and throwaway punch lines from heavily Botoxed has-beens — any of these can send us into a national tizzy.

It’s not that we shouldn’t be indignant when faced with outright insults; we have all the right in the world to demand a motherfucking apology when some other country thinks they can just kick us down and laugh.  The thing, though, is that almost anything relatively not positive can get our collective panties in a tight bunch.  Anything.

I’ve seen the sketch.  It’s not funny (or maybe I don’t know enough about Brits to understand the joke), but I say in all honesty that I do not feel insulted.  That’s just my personal opinion.

A gyrating Pinay — tell me I haven’t seen that in some Pinoy comedy before.  An ugly Filipina girl doing her best to get violated by some hot guy?  Oh, is that not so Zorayda or Pokwang?

We’re only angry because it’s some other nationality on the other side of the sketch.

I’m all for women’s rights, and yes, any form of sexual abuse or harassment is not funny.  It’s just that we get this shit from our own television screens every single day and no one sounds a beep.

And we’re being a tad hypocritical, don’t you think?

We’re just as nasty when it comes to portraying foreigners.  I’m pretty sure a rather unflattering and tacky portrayal of the numerous Koreans crawling all over our 7000+ islands is in the offing.  I dare you to deny that our films and television shows have ever presented insulting and degrading portrayals of our nationalities.

If China or Japan sued us over every single insulting portrayal of their kind on Philippine celluloid, we’d drown in demand letters.

And we’re always so … dramatic.  I’ve always said that everything about this country is showbiz.  You want a negotiator?  Get Robin Padilla.  The Abu Sayyaf will talk to you if you get the one Muslim action star in the country to sit across them.  Everything is about melodrama — all that emotional hand-wringing and forehead-scrunching is pretty much second nature to the people of this country.

One congressman or woman decides that this particular issue is going to get his mug on the front pages and there you go.  I thought we had every right to kick NBC’s ass after that Desperate Housewives insult; our medical community in the United States had every right to be angry.  Unfortunately, it turned into a gruesome “they always bully us” refrain that made no sense and muddled the issue completely.

Dignified countries send their ambassadors to sort out the mess.  Bulging veins and tear-stained faces have no place in international negotiations.  We want those motherfuckers to say sorry?  We find a way to bring them to their knees.

I’m no expert, but I’m sure lame protests and burning stuff won’t cut it.

The Harry and Paul sketch is tasteless and not funny.  Let’s just say I’ve seen better and funnier from Fry and Laurie, as well as the eternally beloved Mr. Bean.  That said, I don’t see it as a racial issue.  It’s an unfortunate decision on the show’s part to choose a Filipina domestic helper.

They should’ve chosen someone from a less pikon country.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 11:18 pm and is filed under pinas, politics, rant, television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.